KLUANG, Feb 8 — Coffee is a lot more than just a drink as the mixture of coffee powder can produce stunning paintings.
One of such artistic talent is Ai Zhi Yong, 29, treasurer of the Kluang Hopehome Welfare Association, who is also the co-owner of a cafe, who uses the town’s famous ‘Cap Televisyen’ coffee powder to produce a series of festive-themed paintings as part of preparations for the Chinese New Year celebration.
In line with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) 2.0 implemented by the government until Feb 18, Ai, who has been interested in painting since childhood, also inserted messages relating to the COVID-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) in 10 Chinese New Year paintings he produced to raise public awareness.
He said that the paintings will not only adorn the cafe walls, but will also be sold to raise funds to cover the expenses of the less fortunate under the management of the Kluang Hopehome Welfare Association.
“One of my paintings depicts the atmosphere of ‘big feast’ with lantern decoration which is synonymous with Chinese New Year celebration.
“I also included a few messages in Mandarin such as “it is okay not to be able to gather at this year’s celebration because the gathering is not limited to this period only” as well as “be safe and healthy” wishes,” he said when met by Bernama at the cafe, recently.
The Kluang native said other paintings show other icons such as ox, mandarin oranges as well as # messages such as #MCO2.0 (PKP 2.0), ‘stay safe’ and ‘stay home’.
Each painting takes between an hour and two hours to complete depending on the complexity of the drawing and the desired tone of the coffee.
Ai said in October last year, he produced 10 paintings depicting iconic buildings in town using the same coffee powder to raise funds, and each was priced between RM250 and RM300.
Three of the paintings were successfully sold at RM680, including one bought by a people’s representative here, he said.
Among the 10 paintings he produced were the Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim, PKH coffee shop in Jalan Mersing, SJK(C) Chong Hwa 2, Kluang Railway Station and a popular chicken rice stall at Kampung Paya market.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the implementation of MCO, the cafe and association have been affected, so we need to find other sources of income for the survival of those in need,” he said, adding that the cafe now also received food packages donated by the public daily and then distributed them to the poor and the homeless in the community.
Sources: BERNAMA